Season 3, Episode 21: "Greatest Hits"

Alright, so it was a bit of a filler/set up episode for next week's bonanza finale, but I liked it nonetheless. I feel like the episode had a ton of gravity to it...meaning that I really felt bad/sad for Charlie and could really feel the sense of impending doom that next week's battle royale might provide. But anyways, let's get to what happened...

Jack's got a plan. And I must admit, it's not a bad one. He will have Juliette mark the tents as planned and the blow the shit out of anyone that attempts to get what's inside (which in this case, will be plenty of dyn-O-mite rather than women galore.) But Sayid has other plans. He's thinking that maybe - just maybe they should be figuring out how to actually get off the damn Island. They know there's a ship off shore but can't get a message to it and thanks to Juliette, we now know why. There is a station off shore that is jamming any out-going communication. But, according to Juliette, the station is flooded (a "fact" she learned from Ben), so even if the Losties were to try and remedy the situation, they couldn't due to the fact that no one can access the underwater Hatch.

Conveniently though, Desmond has a vision that Charlie flips a switch that releases the jam. The downside: if he flips it, he drowns. Damn. But what's curious here is that if Desmond "sees" Charlie flip the switch and drown, he must have seen wrong cause as we notice later in the episode the station isn't flooded at all. Either that or he saw Charlie get shot or something and just decided to go with the whole "drowning" thing instead...after all, it's supposed to be a peaceful way to die, right? (Certainly better than say, getting eaten by a tiger, but that's a "worst way to die" debate for another time, and probably, another blog). Regardless of cause of death, it looks like Charlie's much anticipated death is finally here. So why not go out with a flurry of "Greatest Hits flashbacks?"

There were a couple things to note in these sometimes cheesy yet endearing flashbacks. First off, we learn that Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" is the only song Charlie can play on the guitar. Well, probably not, but you'll remember that in Desmond's time travel-esque episode earlier this year he runs into Charlie playing this song in the rain as well (at first this looked like it was the same scene, but the message board fanboys have shown that they are indeed separate instances). But most importantly, Charlie eventually turns hero when he saves a helpless woman from an alley way mugging. And I have to admit, I didn't catch this at first, but the woman he saved was none other than Nadia - Sayid's lost love. Congrats if you caught that one. Score another one for the "it's not a coincidence, they're all connected" camp.

The other flashbacks weren't quite as revealing, but we learn that Charlie has enjoyed a threesome or two and that he used probably the best pick up line I've heard in a while on Claire with "so...you're first plane crash?" That's good stuff. Although, I have to believe that if that "Greatest Hits" list goes to number 6, you know it has to be: "the time I found the Virgin Mary statues stuffed with Smack."

But while Charlie may be on his way out, he's not dead just yet. As mentioned, he comes up for air in the clearly NOT-flooded hatch to live another day. Unfortunately though, he's not alone. Can't wait to see what happens there.

And let's discuss this hatch. It's officially called the "Looking Glass Station" (one of the the many Alice in Wonderland metaphors this episode) and its logo is a white rabbit within a Dharma logo. It seems to operate as a submarine docking station and a communication station to some degree. Not only does it block signals to the outside world, but I'm guessing that it is the home of the underwater beacon signal that guides the sub to the Island that Ben discussed a few weeks back. Thanks to the super handy and very detailed map of the station that Sayid somehow acquired (where the hell did that come from? I guess Mikhail's station?), you can see the schematics (and some other snapshots) for yourself:

So let's move on to Ben. He's PISSED. Jacob's got a new favorite in Locke and Ben's rattled. So rattled that he moves up the raid a night early. Screw it, he doesn't need all the preggy test results, they'll just take all the women and kill all the men. Simple enough. Fortunately for the Losties Alex is witness to all of this and takes a break from ripping open her fresh WHITE RABBIT kill to tell her boy Karl to warn the Losties. Karl gives the news to Jack and company and revised plans must be made since Rousseau can't have the triggering set up in time. Luckily, Sayid uses that big ole brain of his and adds that they can shoot the dynamite by using snipers. But who can shoot? Enter Bernard stage left! Rose and Bernard have been missing from the cast for pretty much the entire season and now not only are they back, but they're ready to throw down sniper style. Unfortunately I think this spells the end for Bernard, as this development seems to be a ripe situation for a throw away (but probably heroic) death in the finale. Bernard, we loved you while you lasted, old man. Poor Rose. But moving on, Sayid brings Jack back to reality, convincing him that he - the ex-military mastermind - might be the better choice to stay behind and fight the battle instead of Jack. If I were Sayid though, I'd be keeping a close watch on Juliette. I'm not totally convinced that she's still on the Losties side. A double cross is still a very real possibility in my opinion.

So the table is set. Charlie's in the Looking Glass; Sayid, Bernard, and Rousseau are sniping; Jack and the others are heading to the radio tower; Locke is most likely healing quickly in a massive grave pit; Desmond's knocked out cold in a dingy in the middle of the ocean (really, was that necessary?); Hurley's eating a jar of mayonnaise to keep his figure; and Ben is slowly losing his mind. Buckle up kids, next week will be 2 hours of finale bliss.